January 1991, Page 4

Letters To (and From) The Editors

Subscriptions for Soldiers

While I was looking through the 800 toll free yellow pages (AT&T) for gift ideas for Desert Shield I spotted your name. Having adopted 12 Marines I need easy gifts to send and also to tell them the history of why they are so far from home.

I called your 800-368-5788 number for a sample copy and I have received far more than I could have anticipated—86 compact, hard-hitting pages.

Well, today I ordered a gift subscription for (1) my library, (2) a loudmouth know-it-all TV-radio talk-show host, (3) a TV news personality, (4) the CEO of an overseas firm, (5) those Marines, (6) my family.

Thank you for such comprehensive reporting. Maybe now I, too, will understand more completely the name of the game so very far away.

Dr. L.F. Csizmar, Lakewood, OH

Your 20 recipients will get this 96-page January 1991 issue and monthly issues for the rest of the year. We'll thank you on their behalf and all other donors on behalf of the record number of recipients who received gift subscriptions in December. We hope throughout 1991 our readers will continue to be points of enlightenment while the media spotlight is on the Middle East and close to half a million Americans have their lives in the balance there. It's a time when intelligent Americans who receive gift subscriptions will be interested enough to learn the basics about US-Middle East affairs, and as a result perhaps this will be the last time US troops will have to rush to the Middle East.

What's In a Name?

I have been fighting the abuse of the language and the reference to the Mosque as temple for years. I have written to The New York Times editors, to AP, ABC, NBC CBS, CNN, NPR, PBS, Los Angeles Times: Globe and Mail of Canada and have even called Jerusalem and spoke to Peter Arnett of CNN, asking him not to use the expression. Arnett expressed regret and stopped using it.

The problem with the use of those words on your cover story is that you accentuate the "validity" and the meaning of the concept in the minds of your readers. You might at least have placed quotation marks around “Temple Mount."

To say as you did when I telephoned that your readers recognize "Temple Mount" as against "Al Aksa Mosque" is really not correct. The readers, as a rule, will take whatever is given to them. Believe me, no reader would have been confused if you had titled the front page "Massacre in the Mosque: What Did Really Happen" (or some title along that line).

Happily, The New York Times, which is read every day by some 800,000, never uses "Temple Mount" in its news columns and when they did it many years ago in an editorial and I objected, they stopped the usage there also. Anyway, may God forgive you and may he forgive me on this and our other shortcomings.

You still have my high regards.

Dr. Mohammad T. Mehdi, National Council on Islamic Affairs; American Arab Relations Committee, New York, NY

There's no question that the Palestinians gunned down by Israeli police and border guards were in the enclosure known as Haram Al-Sharif to defend the two mosques within it, Al Aksa and the Dome of the Rock, from the semi-annual incursion by Jewish religious fanatics called the "Temple Mount Faithful, "who seek to replace the mosques in Islam's third holiest site with a Jewish -Third Temple." Our front cover headline, "What Really Happened at the Temple Mount " was to invite readers to learn from four articles inside, by Palestinians Faisal Hussaini and Ibrahim Dawud, Israeli Dr. Israel Shahak, and the editor, that at least four Palestinians were killed well before any stones thrown within the enclosure fell anywhere near the Western Wall (Wailing Wall), holiest site in the world to Jews, on one side of what the Jews call the Temple Mount. Our reports were written some weeks before CBSs -60 Minutes " so ably presented, on Dec. 2, similar information under the title -The Temple Mount Killings.

"B'nai Brith's Anti-De Jamation League has charged that the -60 Minutes " broadcast failed to meet acceptable journalistic standards. " ADL president Abraham Foxman charged narrator Mike Wallace "gave the false impression that Israel is engaged in a deliberate cover-up " and complained to -60 Minutes" producer Don Hewitt that ADL is "extremely disturbed" about this "biased approach." Hewitt walked out of a small dinner party at which he was badgered as being “pro-Arab."

We expect similar things have happened to the segment's producer, Barry Lando, and the largely Jewish on-camera and off-camera staff of "60 Minutes," which has pioneered in exposing the machinations of AIPAC, Israel's US lobby, in keeping Saudi Arabia from getting needed arms, and in trying to defeat Senator John Chafee (R-R& whose staff credits the "60 Minutes " expose for his re-election in 1988.

On the other hand, Joel Brinkley, the Jerusalem correspondent for The New York Times, reported on Oct. 15 that "it is incontrovertible that ... the Palestinians rained stones down onto the heads of Jews praying at the Western Wall. " His Israeli wife, Sabra Chartrand, reported on Oct. 8 in The New York Times "an hour-long battle outside Al Aksa Mosque between Israeli policemen and thousands of Arabs hurling rocks and bottles at Jews praying at the Western Wall below. "

Michael Emery wrote in the Village Voice that he sat in a room in Jerusalem with both of these New York Times correspondents and watched three videotapes that proved conclusively that any stones that fell around the Western Wall were thrown well after the killing of Palestinians started, and that the area around the Western Wall was deserted at the time. Neither Brinkley, Chartrand, nor The New York Times has ever corrected their slanderous misrepresentations.

Since "Sixty Minutes" used "Temple Mount" in the title of its report, and The New York Times didn't, will you be joining ADL in criticizing "60 Minutes," while continuing to praise The New York Times?

That said, we'll try to use "Temple Mount " only when that's what we mean, as in quotes or references to groups such as -The Temple Mount Faith Al, "which is, in fact, what The New York Times does, too.

Whose Gulf?

I cannot tell you how happy I was to find the Washington Report nearly a year ago. I have shown it to some teachers in my district, shared it with friends, purchased five gift subscriptions and many of your books, half of which I plan to share with libraries and the teachers I mentioned above. (Your "two for the price of one.")

However, I am very concerned about your response in the December issue to Sami Ragheb, from Qatar, who urged you to call the Persian Gulf the "Arabian Gulf " I hope you are aware of the Israeli plan for the peripheral nations and how any issue, act, response that could create and/or sustain hostility works to the clear advantage of such a plan. There is something much more significant here than Mr. Ragheb may realize. Your response to such a question, therefore, needs to reflect enlightened understanding, not by telling Mr. Ragheb it is his Gulf and not by limiting your answer to self-defense. The question of what to call the Persian Gulf becomes an opportunity to develop a more educated awareness. It is for this that people in increasing numbers turn to you, not to be patronized or placated or anything else. You can see how hungry and thirsty we are. Your response was candid, yes, but you need to be more than that.

Please remember that your readership could include many Iranians. My husband is only one among them. He reads every word in your articles and all the letters. He doesn't read anything else so carefully or draw from any other news source the hope and solace he gains knowing how you inform and help the American public to understand. Your answer will deal him a severe blow when he reads it.

I have worked so diligently to tell my husband and our Iranian friends over so long a time that it is vitally important for Iranians and Iran to develop friendship and unity with Arabs. Some tell me no, that the Arabs hate Iranians and can be relied on only to bully and, indeed, to kill Iranians. The Arabs, they say, have provided them with plenty of evidence. Because of this, they say, Iranian survival depends on developing Israeli friendship. (My husband and all Iranians we know prefer America for friendship above all others.) Meanwhile, they hate Israeli actions and abuses, which occur everywhere. It is a terrible conflict. Our brother Ragheb has no idea how he and people like him fit into the Israeli plan or how Israelis do and will play both sides of every imaginable conflict throughout the Muslim world in its entirety. We are all victimized not only by the Israeli policies, overt and covert, but by sheer ignorance. My husband sees this and he suffers immeasurably.

I would like to share this hadith:

"The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr."

May God bless your efforts to help in this unstable world.

Shirley Gazori, Grandview, WA

Sometimes, when we answer a letter too glibly, we are brought up short not just by the "other side " of that ever we propose, but by dimensions we hadn't even considered. We are touched, of course, by your letter. And, fortunately for the world, the Gulf is not ours to give away. We think you will be pleased by a clipping sent by another reader describing a similar controversy enveloping Dan Rather, who referred in a CBS newscast to "the Arabian Gulf, also known as the Persian Gulf. " 7he clipping notes that the Romans referred to it as "Sinus Persicus " ("Persian Bend "), but that Webster's New Geographical Dictionary lists both Persian Gulf and Arabian Gulf as the same body of water. Nice straddle.

None of this, however, extricates us from our quandary. We want to present all of our diverse readership with useful information and viewpoints they may not find elsewhere. Making them angry only breaks the dialogue. We mean only to inform, not offend, but it's harder than it looks.

A Startling Revelation

I appreciated so much your letter answering my questions about Livia Rokach, who translated the revealing excerpts from the diary of Moshe Sherett, and published them in the book Israel's Sacred Terror, carried in your AET Book Club Catalogue. Your information that she was found dead in a Rome hotel room some years ago was indeed startling. For some time I have attempted to locate Ms. Rokach but my efforts were fruitless, so I do appreciate the information.

Alfred J. Blasco, Kansas City, MO

The Meir Kahane Legacy

Several newspaper articles on the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane have referred to "his" slogan "Never again!" In fact the same"Never again!" is the slogan of moral and reasonable human beings-not of Meir Kahane. Moral and reasonable people placed memorials with the vow "Never again! " at the sites of Nazi atrocities long before Meir Kahane began preaching his message of hate. I personally saw such a memorial at Dachau in 1950.

Russell S. Hibbs, Bethesda, MD

Other People's Mail

Enclosed is a letter published in our local newspaper. I have sent AET copies of other letters which were published to see if they would be useful, but I have never heard if they are, or not.

I don't want to send you a bunch of papers which are of no use to you. So will you please let me know if you want letters like this?

Surely the Iraqi action has struck a serious blow to efforts for an Israeli/Palestinian peace meeting of any substance. Years of work down the drain!

John Tabor, Winchester, KY

Each time the media spotlight shines on the Middle East, for whatever reason, more Americans become aware that it is America's appalling double standard which underlies US troubles there. So perhaps Saddam Hussain's derailing of the peace process will stir up more interest in the US government in getting it back on track. As for the letters, please continue to send them. We get far, far more than we can use in "Other People's Mail, " but the more we get, the better selection we can offer. We have volunteers who also seek to contact any of the writers who are not already subscribers (most are, by now), and they have brought us some of our most active supporters. Wasn't that how we first got in touch with you some years ago?

Another Crisis in Kashmir

Mowahid Shah's article "Danger in Kashmir" (Washington Report, November 1990) manages the remarkable feat of recounting the history of modern Kashmir without even once mentioning Sheikh Abdullah, who remained a pre-eminent leader of the Kashmiri people throughout his life and in the early 1940s was known as the Lion of Kashmir. The trauma, torture and agony of the Kashmiri people today makes it imperative that past events be recalled accurately and not be recast to match today's perspective....

India, the first country in Africa or Asia to free itself from colonial rule in this century, achieved freedom after a mass movement. The leaders of this movement were men and women of great integrity who valued democracy. Jawaharal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah were co-partners in the struggle against colonialism and feudalism in the 1940s. The subsequent tragic course of history in Kashmir does not take away from this earlier partnership. This promised plebiscite could have been held as late as 1954 (see Sarrapalli Gopal's Jawaharal Nehru, volume 2, pages 182-185). Unfortunately, by this time Kashmir had become hostage not only to Indo-Pakistani rivalry and compulsions, but also to superpower rivalry in their efforts to pursue their interests and court both of these countries.

Today the cumulative failure and cavalier policies of the government of India have resulted in an extremely explosive crisis with dire consequences for the Kashmiri people. The horrors inflicted on innocent unarmed civilians in Kashmir by Indian paramilitary and security forces are by now well documented by several independent observers. The most painful aspect of Kashmir today is that a meaningful resolution of the present crisis which fulfills the aspirations of the Kashmiri people appears highly unlikely in the foreseeable future. Towards such a resolution, all people who care for human rights and justice must continue to struggle....

Dr. Bindu T. Desai, Oak Park, IL

Be a Restraining Influence

I hope that you will continue to exert a restraining influence on the administration's policy of military escalation in the Gulf.

A war against Iraq might be in the best interests of the Pentagon, of Saudi Arabia, of Kuwait, or of Israel, but it is definitely not in the best interests of the American people.

Saddarn Hussain has made it clear on a number of occasions-mostly recently to Soviet negotiator Primakov-that he would be willing to withdraw from Kuwait if he could find a face-saving way to do so and if he were assured that the US would not simply make more demands after he withdrew.

I urge you to consider the suggestion of Professor Roger Fisher of Harvard Law School (Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project) that the United Nations adopt another resolution spelling out exactly what would happen if Saddam Hussain were to withdraw from Kuwait. Such a resolution might make a withdrawal possible.

I enclose a copy of Professor Fisher's article.

Louise Green, St. Louis, MO

Thanks, but we beat you to Dr. Fisher's article, which we reprinted in the "Other Voices " section of our December issue. In this issue we offer some more such ideas in "Six Views, " "What They Said," and by some of our regular correspondents.

A Thorn and a Rose

September's issue contained an interesting article by Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal, much of which I agreed with wholeheartedly. However, in speaking of The Diary of Anne Frank, he speaks of a German newspaper account of a trial "in which it was demonstrated that portions of the original manuscript had been written in ball-point pen, invented only in 1951," seven years after Anne Frank's death. I have heard this allegation before and I do not know where it started. The facts are that ball-point pens were invented by an American, John Loud, in 1888, and, although not as common as they are today, they were in use during World War H. I very much regret this failure as I fear it will encourage the pro-Israel camp to link both Dr. Lilienthal and the Washington Report to the radical white supremacist group that is currently peddling this bit of misinformation in my home town.

On another note, you have several books on the intifada in your AET catalogue and I wanted to call your attention to what I consider to be one of the best. It is Intifada by Don Peretz, published by Westview Press, 5500 Central Ave., Boulder, CO 80301. The best word I can find to describe its approach is clinical. It is loaded with facts and figures and where there is disagreement on the "facts, " Mr. Peretz gives both versions and their sources. The author takes no sides, merely letting the realities speak for themselves. The result is a clear picture of the injustices heaped upon the Palestinians with no room for allegations of bias or distortion. If you are able to get the book, I will buy several copies from you.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I believe my subscription is due for renewal soon, so I am enclosing a check for $15. Please, please, please hang in there. We need you!

Phoenix M. Von Hendy, Powry, CA

We'll check on the availability of Intifada and let our readers know if we can add it to the AET Catalogue.

Getting More Readers

I have just received my first copy of the Washington Report. It deserves wider readership. I have a suggestion: After copies have been read by subscribers, they can be taken to the next dental or medical appointment and added to the magazines on the tables. (I have often perused old news magazines on these tables, and noted that they had labels addressed to various people, perhaps placed there by the patients.)

Trini Marquez, Sky Forest, C

Thanks for a good idea. Readers who have the time and inclination should be aware, however, that we do eventually receive several hundred copies of each issue in newsstand returns, press overruns, etc. if you want a few copies of a single back issue at no charge for promotional purposes, or 50 or so to hand out at a meeting, we'll ask only that you pay the freight charge. It's such volunteer help that is responsible for the steady increases in circulation we are enjoying, despite the well-known obstacles to commercial distribution plus no funds for advertising.

Thanks from a Librarian

Thank you very much for the subscription to The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. It will be placed in our library's periodical browsing collection where it is open to all students. I am sure it will get use.

Would you please pass this letter on to the Phoenix Chapter. Their address was not included in the subscription information.

Marcia Melton, Periodicals Librarian, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

We'll let your letter of thanks to the Metro Phoenix (AZ) Chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee serve as a generic thanks from the more than 1,000 public and school libraries that received first-year donated subscriptions to The Washington Report from Middle East or Islamic-related organizations during 1990. We hope that when the gift subscription expires, as many as possible of those libraries will renew on their own, so that the donor groups and individuals can continue introducing the magazine to libraries that are not yet aware of it.

Picking Up Pieces

The province of Mosul, present-day Nineveh, was marked by the League of Nations in 1925 to be the Assyrian homeland. However, Iraq annexed the province in the same way it is trying to annex Kuwait. Surely the policy-makers of the governments of the United States and Turkey should raise the issue of "Mosul Province" when dealing with the Iraqi government.

The information is taken from the book The Assyrian National Question at the United Nations by Dr. Sargon O. Dadesho, Chairman of the Assyrian National Congress of Modesto, California.

Francis E. Hoyen, Jr., Worcester, MA

We can't think of anything more likely to unify his deeply disaffected people behind Saddarn Hussain than for the United States or other foreign powers to return to the old "divide and rule "formulas where by first the Ottomans and then European powers controlled the Middle East for centuries. The US has indicated one of its aims in forcing Iraqi forces out of Kuwait is to defend the inviolability of national boundaries. These boundaries are flawed, but if you start changing them unilaterally, the result is death, destruction and chaos for everyone concerned.